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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



Notes on the 
Care, Cataloguing, Calendaring 

and 

Arranging of Manuscripts 



BY 



J. C. FITZPATRICK 

Chief Assistant, Division of Manuscripts 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1913 



YVS library of congress 



Notes on the 
Care, Cataloguing, Calendaring 

and 

Arranging of Manuscripts 



BY 



J. C. FITZPATRICK 

Chief Assistant, Division of Manuscripts 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1913 



V) ob 






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L. C. card, 13-35007 



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PREFATORY NOTE 

The Library of Congress has not made a practice of issuing 
manuals descriptive of its administrative processes or the 
specialized treatment of particular collections. In the case 
of the manuscripts, however, a description seems desirable 
for several reasons: First, because there seems not to be 
available in print a practical guide or aid to the treatment of 
archive material; second, because, in the absence of such a 
guide, the authorities of the Library have had repeated 
requests for advice on various technical details connected 
with such treatment; and third, because the processes at 
present in vogue in our Division of Manuscripts represent 
decisions reached by a long and intimate experience with a 
large and important collection, varied in form and condition, 
and requiring methods of treatment that will not merely in- 
sure safety and permanence, but prompt efficiency in response 
to a varied demand. 

In the case of manuscripts, therefore, it has seemed well to 
make available in print a description of the procedure in the 
Library, of the processes, and of the convictions of experience 
upon which, between varying methods, a choice has been 
made ; and the statement which follows has been compiled not 
merely as a report of operations in progress, but with a view 
to its possible utility to other institutions having like problems. 

The compiler is Mr. J. C. Fitzpatrick, chief assistant in the 
division, who has seen the collection grow from the restricted 
limit of a single room to its present area of three floors, upon 
which are stored over a million folios of original documents 



4 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

touching American history from the time of the Columbian 
discoveries. During this period his personal experience of all 
the processes has been direct and specific, including not merely 
the physical handling of the manuscripts and the accession- 
ing, classifying, cataloguing, indexing, and calendaring of 
them, as well as supervision of the various processes of repair, 
preservation and binding, but also the ministrant service of 
the material to investigators. 

Gaillard Hunt, 
Chief, Division of Manuscripts. 
Herbert Putnam, 

Librarian of Congress, 

Washington, December, 191 3. 



NOTES 

Manuscripts and manuscript collections should be con- 
sidered first as to preservation, second as to use. 

1. Preservation necessarily precedes use and largely deter- 
mines and governs it, though it must be borne in mind that a 
manuscript withheld from consultation might almost as well 
be nonexistent. 

2. Use for any legitimate historical investigation, or simi- 
lar purpose, should be restricted only in proportion to certain 
physical conditions of the manuscript (manuscripts of a con- 
fidential nature, official or personal, are present in all archival 
collections ; but consideration of such papers does not properly 
fall within the scope of these notes). Where these physical 
conditions are prohibitive they may be met by photographic 
reproduction. A manuscript, unlike a rare imprint, is the 
only one of its kind existent and any defacement is irreparable. 
It should not be handled hastily; nothing should be laid 
upon it; it must not be touched with either pen or pencil 
point and copying should be with pencil if possible, as the 
open, dripping inkwell is a constant menace to the document. 
The fountain pen is only less objectionable. With some well- 
meaning but awkward individuals, however, the pencil for 
copying or making notes is all that can safely be permitted. 
Consultation of manuscripts should be allowed only in the 
presence and under the constant observation of the archivist 
or his assistants. 

3. Sensational exploitation for newspaper or magazine must 
be guarded against. To this undesirable use of records the 
archivist has but to oppose his judgment of human nature. 

5 



6 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

3 — Continued. 
Letters and cards of introduction play an important part here 
and the rest can be covered by a brief conversation. For- 
tunately the historical contents of archives are of slight interest 
to the news gatherer and where the archivist has in charge 
manuscripts which, under the deed of deposit, can not be 
shown except with restrictions as to their use, he must see 
the notes or copies made therefrom by the investigator. The 
investigator of the manuscripts should be required to make 
written application for the documents he desires; this appli- 
cation may be a card form which, when properly filed, will 
prove of reference value to the archivist in the course of time. 
The application card will, of course, vary to suit different 
needs, but a form that will meet most requirements may be 
found in the following : 



Name of the Archive Bureau 



Applicant: 
Address.-— 
Date: 



Manuscript: 



Purpose of investigation: 



•O 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS 7 

3 — Continued. 

Generally speaking, the risks arise frorri careless handling of 
the manuscripts, and a little watchfulness will reduce these to 
the minimum. 

4. Classes of manuscripts. — Manuscripts may be divided 
roughly into two classes: illuminated manuscripts and cor- 
respondence or other pen-created papers of official and private 
daily life. The status of the typewritten letter is yet to be 
decided definitely, though probably it will be classed in the 
future with pen-made documents. We are not concerned here 
either with the care or archival treatment of the illuminated 
manuscript, a very good discussion of which, together with 
sound elemental instruction for cataloguing, will be found in 
Madan's "Books in Manuscript." Also the quantity of 
American parchments is negligible and seldom anything more 
than a charter, land deed, patent, commission, diploma, or 
similar document, parchment almost by accident, for nearly 
as many of the same class are on paper. These American 
parchments properly come under the same general rules of 
classification as manuscripts on paper; and special considera- 
tion of them beyond a few questions of preservation and stor- 
age may be rightfully ignored. Our interest is with the sec- 
ond class, generally denominated by European archivists as 
"documents." Here in America we have become accus- 
tomed to considering as "documents" the official printed pub- 
lications of State and Federal authority, which results in a 
confusion of terms that some day may prove vexatious. 

What we call manuscripts, then, are to be divided roughly 
into two classes : Official and Personal. 

5. Official manuscripts are legislative acts, commissions, 
estimates, land grants, memoranda, messages, military rolls 
and returns, orders, patents, proceedings, proclamations, 



8 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

5 — Continued. 
reports, resolves, etc. Personal papers are correspondence, 
drafts of letters, letter-books, memoranda, personal financial 
accounts, etc. ; but where the papers are those of a public man 
the line of demarcation between personal and official is often 
shadowy in the extreme. (See Cataloguing.) 

6. Official papers under the control of the archivist come to 
him usually with an arrangement and indexing born of admin- 
istrative necessity, and in no wise competent to answer the 
needs of the historical investigator. Useless and faulty as 
such an arrangement may be for students of history and eco- 
nomics, it is well to allow it to stand until such time as the 
rearrangement scheme has been thoroughly worked out and 
its application to the papers can be carried through without 
interruption or delay. The official indexes or finding-list 
catalogues of such collections should always be preserved no 
matter how useless they may seem after the rearrangement of 
the papers. If these indexes are bulky and space consuming 
they may be condensed by a group classification or outline 
record, for archival consultation, before being sent to the stor- 
age basement. It is the part of wisdom to leave their destruc- 
tion to the next generation. 

7. Official papers transferred to the archive bureau from 
governmental files should be papers whose administrative 
value has disappeared and that are officially dead — i. e., papers 
that actual practice has shown are never consulted for admin- 
istrative purposes. Control over such papers is undesirable, 
for there can be no right nor claim of historical investigator 
not legitimately overridden by administrative need; and, 
where this need continues to exist, its interference would 
result in practically transforming the archive bureau into an 
adjunct of the department from which the files came. 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS 9 

8. Personal papers of an individual may come into the hands 
of the archivist untouched, or having suffered but slight de- 
rangement. In such cases the existing arrangement should 
be studied carefully before the necessary archival rearrange- 
ment is begun. The first handling of a mass of manuscripts 
is often most important and needs the ripe judgment and 
trained hands of the experienced archivist. By carefully 
skimming through, taking care not to disarrange in the slight- 
est, a general grasp of the collection may be obtained which 
will aid greatly to proper decisions later. In every collection 
there are misplaced, wrongly dated and undated documents, 
unsigned memoranda, inclosures, and apparently disconnected 
papers, that require careful consideration, as it is a prime 
archival duty to reduce the unidentified manuscripts in every 
collection to the least possible number. This consideration 
is valuable in direct proportion to the knowledge, experience, 
and "manuscript sense" of the one who arranges the collec- 
tion. To the trained archivist, any original arrangement (and 
by "original" is meant the one untouched since the growth of 
the papers terminated) no matter how faulty from an archival 
viewpoint, is replete with hints of value to the final archival 
arrangement and the dating and identifying of the miscellany 
of the collection. But once this original continuity, whatever 
it be, becomes disturbed by untrained hands, valuable and 
time-saving clues are destroyed, the loss of which will necessi- 
tate the expenditure of hours of expert research otherwise 
avoidable. Of course, where papers are received in a con- 
fused mass, having been pawed over and tossed about until 
all semblance of an order is lacking, much of the preliminary 
and time-consuming work can be performed by less expert 
hands before the undivided attention of the archivist is 
necessary. 

20820 — 13 2 



IO LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

9. An elemental suggestion here for the actual handling of 
disarranged papers may prove of assistance. In arranging 
chronologically a large mass of disordered manuscripts, time, 
labor, and space will be saved, first by grouping them in 
decades, then by years; next, group each year into quarters 
and from thence work down to the individual months ; the days 
of the month may be grouped by tens as a preliminary step to 
the daily sequence. This may seem an unnecessarily frequent 
handling of the same papers; but the divisions are easy to 
control and the speed with which one works under this system 
will be found to be nearly double that of other methods. 
Much time will also be saved if, on the first handling, every 
manuscript dated on the verso or elsewhere than the upper 
right-hand corner is redated in that corner with a medium soft, 
fine-pointed pencil. 

10. Arrangement. — Under ideal conditions no arrangement 
of papers would be attempted until the collection is card cata- 
logued; but pressure of investigator and ardor of historian 
seldom justify withholding an entire collection from use pend- 
ing such work; and cataloguing and calendaring must fre- 
quently wait upon arrangement. In this work of arrangement 
the training, experience, and knowledge of the archivist enable 
him to settle many vexatious questions, unaided by the data 
later accumulated from classifying and combining the cards 
of the properly catalogued collection. And here comes in that 
intangible something, difficult to describe, impossible to incul- 
cate, but ardently to be desired as a characteristic of every 
archivist, a "manuscript sense." It may be called a feeling, 
that amounts to sympathy, a respect for the frail page that 
induces a natural gentleness and care in handling ; it nourishes 
an instinct, a sixth sense, that, more often than not, prompts 
a^ recognition of the unidentified manuscript before close 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS II 

1 — Continued. 
scrutiny and knowledge; it pushes forward suggestions of 
value that have, at the moment, no apparent basis of reason 
and smooths many difficulties in a manner comprehended, 
but not entirely understood. It is quite possible to be a good 
archivist without this "manuscript sense," which, after all, 
may, with a show of reason, be classed as imagination; but 
the man who possesses it will always be just a little better 
archivist than the one, no matter how good, in whom it is 
lacking. 

11. Collection or group arrangement is entirely dependent 
upon the geography of the storage space at disposal and the 
frequency of consultation of the group. Where the archi- 
tectural arrangements have been specially designed for 
archives, under the direction of the archivist, the matter is 
simple; but such conditions are rare in America as yet. To 
work out, under the usual restricted conditions, a consistent, 
coherent scheme for many large groups of manuscripts, and 
apply it with logical rigidity will generally result in a daily 
waste of time of both investigator and archival force. No 
matter how desirable or satisfactory such arrangement may 
be in theory, in practice its main element will prove to be that 
of great physical inconvenience and, unless more shelf space 
is allowed for expansion than usually can be spared, the entire 
archival collection will have to be shifted periodically as a 
result of unexpected and uneven growth. The thing to re- 
member is that the classification arrangement must depend 
entirely upon the manuscripts, and that, to a large extent, 
the archivist must submit to be ruled by his material. Any 
attempt to force manuscripts into classification schemes simi- 
lar to that of books means disaster. Flexibility, far beyond 
the capabilities of book classification, is an absolute necessity. 



12 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

1 1 — Continued. 
To evolve a logically perfect scheme of manuscript classifica- 
tion based upon the individual folio or document is beyond 
utilitarian limits, and to insist upon rigid group classification 
is to restrict unnecessarily the working efficiency of the 
archive bureau. The difference between the subject matter 
of letters and documents and that of books, as well as the 
physical aspect of the material, would demand an excess of clas- 
sification detail embarrassing to the point of ineffectiveness. 

12. Arrangement of individual manuscripts within the vari- 
ous collections should be the simplest possible; the test and 
almost the sole governing idea should be that of ease and 
certainty in finding. (See under Mechanics of Arrangement). 
Easy as it is to misplace books in large libraries and difficult 
as it sometimes is to find them, because of some slight inad- 
vertence in handling, the difficulty in the case of manuscripts 
is increased tenfold and only the simplest arrangement can 
reduce the chance of inadvertence to the minimum. 

13. The group arrangement of the Library of Congress, 
whose collections are largely Americana, may be of interest 
and use as a study though seldom applicable to other collec- 
tions. This arrangement, outside of the large groups of 
Personal papers of great Americans, may be generally termed 
a chronologic-geographic one. It follows the sequence of 
events from the discovery of the Western Hemisphere, through 
exploration and settlement, as naturally developed: First, 
the West Indies, Spanish America, Mexico, Central and South 
America general, then by countries in their geographical 
divisions and strictly chronological within these divisions; 
then North America, the grouping therein being the British, 
French, Spanish, and other colonies. This group arrange- 
ment carries through the general miscellany to the Revolu- 
tion, all the manuscripts being of such a general nature as not 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS 1 3 

1 3 — Continued. 
to belong clearly to any of the original 13 Colonies. With 
the assembling of the First Continental Congress the mis- 
cellany of the Revolution begins its chronological order, which 
includes all those manuscripts created by the activities of the 
general confederation of the Colonies and not clearly emanating 
from any particular one. The Papers of the Continental 
Congress form a distinct group within this general scheme. 
After them, each of the 13 States has its own strict chrono- 
logical order, which conveniently ignores the Revolution as a 
period. After the Revolutionary group is the period of the 
Confederation (1 783-1 789) and the "United States, miscel- 
laneous" from the latter date on. The individual States, 
other than the original thirteen, have each its own chrono- 
logical arrangement, and the Personal Papers, beginning with 
the noble series of the papers of the Presidents, and following 
in the order of the administrations, are arranged by groups 
with the single purpose of convenience in handling. Other 
groups are those of Indians, Orderly Books, Journals and 
Diaries, Mercantile Accounts, the Army, the Navy (under 
these last two groups naturally fall the strictly military and 
naval operations of the various wars, the civic activities of 
which are classified under the proper Federal executive 
departments — see Mechanics of Arrangement), Marine Mis- 
cellany, Great Britain, the foreign countries, and other clean 
cut and logically natural groups. The arrangement within 
each of these groups is strictly chronological; when one or 
more of them expands to the point where internal subdivision 
becomes necessary for utility in handling, a chronological 
order still obtains within the new subdivisions. 

14. Mechanics of arrangement. — One thing ever to be kept 
in mind, let it be repeated, is the necessity of arranging indi- 
vidual manuscripts within groups in such order as to insure 



14 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

14 — Continued. 
prompt accessibility to every document. Whatever the 
needs of the historian or student who consults the papers, the 
one requisite of prompt accessibility is common to all and 
should not for a moment be forgotten. Experience, and by this 
is meant not the experience of the investigator or user of the 
manuscripts, but of the archivist, the actual curator of the 
documents, who is called upon dozens of times a day to locate 
and produce individual papers and who alone fully compre- 
hends the difficulties of the task, has demonstrated that the 
strict chronological arrangement by years, months, and days 
is the only perfectly satisfactory one. It presents a complete 
picture of the daily course of events as the life of the past was 
lived; it satisfies the instincts of the investigator by placing 
the records before him in unbroken sequence of time; it 
reduces the chances of misplacement of the single manu- 
script to the minimum, largely obviates unnecessary handling 
of the papers, throws all the undated material into one place 
and eases the mind of the historian, as no other grouping can, 
by assuring him that he has not overlooked anything through 
failure to consider all of the possible heads under which papers 
might be grouped in subjective or other classifications. 
Chronology of his subject is the point with which the inves- 
tigator is always thoroughly familiar, and an honest criticism 
or complaint is yet to be lodged against the chronological 
order when strictly adhered to. By "strictly" is meant 
absolutely. Inclosures are separated from their inclosing docu- 
ments, if the dates require it, proper notation being made 
upon the mounting sheet where the manuscript is mounted 
or, where unmounted, on the verso of the document itself 
with a medium soft, fine-pointed lead pencil; the list of 
inclosures on the main document and the main document 
upon the inclosures. Thus in a letter from Horatio Gates to 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS 1 5 

1 4 — Continued. 
George Washington dated 1777, October 1, may be two 
inclosures; one, 1777, September 15, from the Albany Com- 
mittee of Safety to Gates; another, 1777, September 7, from 
Arnold to Schuyler; the notation would be, on the Gates 
letter to Washington: 

Inclosures: 1777, Sep. 7. Arnold to Schuyler. 

Sep. 15. Albany Committee to Gates. 

and on the Arnold and Albany letters : 

Inclosed in: 1777, Oct. 1. Gates to Washington. 

The catalogue cards would, of course, give this information 
when every single manuscript under the archivist's care is 
represented by a card ; but, desirable as this is and devoutly 
as it may be wished, it is as often not so as otherwise; and in 
any event the historical investigator justly complains of being 
forced to turn from manuscripts to cards and back again for 
information that should properly appear with the manuscript 
itself. Again, an archivist seldom has a sufficient force of 
assistants to complete with rapidity .the work of handling 
large masses of material. There are always arrears, and there 
are apt to be formidable accessions, perhaps the papers of a 
prominent public man or the transfer of an old official file, 
minus all semblance of an index. Either accession may mean 
a collection of from 10 to 100,000 separate manuscripts, 
and the time necessary to card such a collection properly, 
with a force of but two or three assistants, would con- 
sume weeks even if there were no other archival work to 
be done. Such accessions may occur monthly or oftener. 
Obviously it is out of the question to withhold papers from 
consultation by responsible historians until such time as they 
can be catalogued. Manuscripts should be available for the 
historian's use as soon as arranged. Under the chronological 



1 6 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

1 4 — Continued . 
order he can work as easily and surely without cards as with 
them; and, indeed, the experienced investigator, studying a 
personage, movement, or period and not wishing merely to 
verify a single detail, seldom uses the cards beyond the point 
of obtaining therefrom his bearings. Their value to him is 
relatively slight compared with their importance as an 
archival record. 

15. Undated papers to which dates can not be given should 
be placed at the end of the dated material, i. e. y papers lacking 
date entirely, at the end of the entire collection. Those dated 
with the year only, after December 31 of that year; those 
dated with the year and month, but not the day, at the end of 
the month. In each of these places an alphabetical arrange- 
ment of the undated pieces will prove an additional conven- 
ience in identification. As this is, in the main, a brief discus- 
sion of what to do rather than what not to do, the many 
faulty arrangements possible need not be considered. There 
are, however, three that should be specially warned against. 
First, any attempt to place letter and answer together; second, 
because of its seeming allurements, the division of a collection 
of personal papers into letters from and letters to; and third, 
any grouping based upon the subject-matter of the manu- 
scripts. The objections to the first are too obvious to need 
mention; the second uselessly duplicates the internal arrange- 
ment, increases fourfold the liability of misplaced manuscripts, 
doubles the time necessary to arrange the collection, leaves 
the unidentified miscellany well-nigh hopelessly stranded as to 
position, and to archivist and investigator alike forever 
remains an exasperation. It is apparently a most convenient 
arrangement for the study of the writings of an individual, 
but is not entirely dependable or satisfactory even in such case. 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS 1 7 

15 — Continued. 
Against this one need fulfilled are dozens of others, arising 
daily, and from the standpoint of biography and of his- 
tory, equally important, for which the arrangement is the 
most inconvenient possible. The physical difficulty of con- 
sulting two distinct sets of the same papers at the same 
time distracts the attention and seriously hampers inclusive 
research, while it unnecessarily demands double the amount 
of labor from the archival force. The third, or subjective 
grouping of manuscripts, is an especially deplorable arrange- 
ment. Manuscript letters or documents treating entirely of 
one subject are rare, and the basis of the subjective arrange- 
ment is shifted at the very beginning from the historical 
information in the manuscripts to the judgment of the 
classifier respecting that information. Nothing is more 
bitterly resented by the historical investigator than inter- 
vention of any kind between himself and his original sources, 
and the resentment is justifiable. A subjective arrangement 
can be nothing but a series of compromises, than which a 
quicksand is not more shifting, and it is precisely this lack of 
stability that justly renders it an object of suspicion. Any 
scheme of arrangement that, like the subjective one, compels 
argumentative consideration in the placing of documents 
contains in that one fact ample reason for its rejection. 

16. Official papers. — In arranging a large mass of official 
papers, the logical method of a chronological order under the 
various departments and bureaus of Government from which 
they emanate is best, e, g., in the case of Federal and State 
Governments, the United States, and State constitutional 
divisions of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, 
with their major subdivisions, are amply sufficient to care for 
20820 — 13 3 



1 8 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

1 6 — Continued. 
any large deposit. The minuteness of this classification will, 
of course, depend upon the size of the collection; ordinarily 
the main divisions only of the three coordinate branches need 
be considered. Where there are only a hundred or so 
manuscripts, however, representing almost as many subdi- 
visions and bureaus, it is wise to ignore a classification more 
complex than the material itself and arrange the papers in 
one chronological order, working out the governmental classi- 
fication, if need be, in the card catalogue. 

17. Where the nature of the manuscript is unvarying, as in 
proclamations, commissions, military returns, etc., they can 
be grouped conveniently according to their natural class; but, 
except in the case of commissions which are so distinctively 
personal as to fall naturally into an alphabetical order, 
chronology should rule in each group. For military returns 
in great numbers the most satisfactory arrangement is chrono- 
logically by organization, brigade, regiment, and company 
(battalion reports, if any, should be ignored and classed under 
the regiment) ; the general returns of corps, divisions, and the 
whole army to be treated in the same way. Military orders, 
however, should ignore everything beyond the department or 
army from which they emanate, and be arranged in strict 
chronological order, which will be the same as their numerical 
sequence, if they were officially numbered as issued. 

18. Orderly books, later superseded by the general and other 
orders in printed form, military and other journals and diaries 
should be arranged on the shelves in strict chronological order 
according to the first date in the books ; the inevitable over- 
lapping of dates is of small moment. 

19. Bound volumes. — Manuscript material in the original 
binding, such as registers, minute books of proceedings, finan- 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS 1 9 

1 9 — Continued. 
cial ledgers/4etter books, etc., present no difficulties of arrange- 
ment, the physical bulk, size of the individual volumes, and 
frequency of consultation largely governing in all such cases. 
In original bindings the volumes are apt either to be unlet- 
tered, or lettered with strange inconclusiveness as to con- 
tents; especially is this apt to be the case in old Spanish and 
French volumes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
(See under Cataloguing.) Where the volume is unlettered it 
is necessary to paste (not glue) small stickers to the back, with 
symbols sufficient to render identification easy. The objection 
to this from a sentimental standpoint is strong; but the time 
saved in locating needed volumes is a stronger necessity. The 
stickers may be of a neutral tint, small in size, and affixed 
with some regard for the original appearance of the volumes. 

20. The numbering question. — To number original manu- 
scripts or manuscript volumes is both unwise and impracti- 
cable. An attempt to apply schemes similar to those of book 
classifications will speedily be found impracticable. Numbers 
upon a manuscript are a disfigurement; they intrude, unex- 
pectedly, upon its validity ; they violate its sanctity as the 
advertisement placard violates that of an ancient tree and in a 
small collection are of no additional aid to identification. In a 
large one the digits increase so rapidly as to become unwieldy 
and obstructive. Nor is it wise to disfigure single manuscripts 
by labels or "stickers." This is sometimes done, but should 
be frowned upon, as the prime duty of the archivist is the 
inviolate preservation of the material in his charge, and any 
interference with this, any increase of wear and tear, any 
weakening of the manuscript, tends to shorten the life of the 
paper. 



20 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

21. Miscellany. — It is in arranging the miscellany that most 
of the difficulties arise. Large, natural collections, i. e., col- 
lections accumulated during the life activities of an indi- 
vidual, or the daily official routine of a bureau or department, 
present few difficulties compared with those of the single, 
disconnected paper or a mass of unrelated documents such as 
would represent the activities of the autograph collector. The 
lone letter, the solitary indenture, memorandum, commission, 
deed, etc., papers sometimes valuable historically and nearly 
always interesting autographically, tempt the archivist to a 
trial of the subjective or alphabetical arrangements. Occa- 
sionally either of these may be permissible; but use of the 
papers by investigators will demonstrate infallibly the ne- 
cessity of representing an alphabetized or subjective group 
by a chronological card arrangement. (See under Cataloguing.) 

22. Personal papers. — There is but one arrangement possi- 
ble for the personal papers of an individual or family — the 
chronological. In the case of scientists or literary personages 
this rule may not be so absolute; but for statesmen, politi- 
cians, soldiers, etc., the exceptions are nonexistent. 

23. Storage devices. — The various mechanical devices for 
storing manuscripts are as many as the personal crotchets of 
archivists. Boxes, slide cases, and portfolios, of innumerable 
pattern and design, are in use, and, so long as each provides 
ample protection, ease of access, and economy of space, a 
choice among them may be indifferent. Only the usual manu- 
script folio document is considered here; for papers of unusual 
proportion special provisions are necessary, discussion of which 
would be tedious. The devices here described have the merit 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS 21 

23 — Continued. 
of simplicity and inexpensiveness and are given, not because 
they are the only ones practicable, but solely because of these 
two qualities in addition to the three fundamentals before 
mentioned. 

Manuscripts should be stored flat, never, under any circum- 
stances, rolled up or folded into the diabolical old-fashion filing 
cabinet. One fold in a manuscript is a step from the path of 
righteousness, two a misdemeanor, while three should be 
classed with felony. Where papers are too large to be stored 
when opened to their original size, they should be deliberately 
cut (with straightedge and knife, never with scissors) to such 
size as is most practicable and at the same time necessitating 
the least number of cuts; should then be hinged with light- 
weight tracing linen (see under Repairs) and folded flat to the 
size desired. The reason for this apparent brutality is that 
the size of the manuscript necessitates folding in any event 
and, sooner or later, it would break in the folds; so it is better 
to make a clean cut between lines and fully protect the manu- 
script with a hinge. To allow it to wear out with time and 
usage risks the destruction of two or more lines of writing. 
Manuscripts should never be placed in envelopes; there is no 
other device so well calculated to reduce them to tatters in 
the shortest possible time as putting in and taking out from 
an envelope. An inexpensive method of storing is in pack- 
ages of from an inch to an inch and a half in thickness, 
in double folders of manila paper, stout enough to be stiff, 
yet not so stiff as to be difficult to handle. These folders 
should be cut to the size approximating the usual folio 
sheet of manuscript (about 17 by 13^ inches, with the grain 



22 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



23 — Continued. 
of the paper running with the 
fit the thickness of the package 



3^ dimension) and folded to 
hus: 




They are then placed around the manuscripts and tied with 
broad tape, a convenient tie being shown : 




iothm* 



[mac 



3EE 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS 23 

23 — Continued. 

This gives a fairly uniform appearance on the shelves and 
amply protects the manuscripts. Dust accumulation in the 
open ends is negligible. The advantages of this method are 
its inexpensiveness and protection; its disadvantages are 
easily seen. Very little use of the papers destroys the protec- 
tive quality of the folder and renders it unsightly, the manu- 
scripts become disarranged and as the packages must be laid 
flat, never more than three in a pile, there is a waste of shelf 
room. A step forward is to have the portfolios made of stiff, 
cheap tar or clay board with stiff backs, hinged with binders' 
cloth, of the same dimensions as the manila folders plus \% 
inches for the flat-back hinge, and a pair of tie tapes : 



~T^ 




These portfolios will, of course, outwear a hundred of the 
manila folders, but are otherwise open to the same objections; 
their cost, however, at wholesale is only a few cents each. 



24 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



23 — Continued. 
A step farther is this portfolio in a slide-box of the same 
material : 




Here we have the manuscripts in the portfolio firmly 
gripped by the tape tie and such a pressure of the box that the 
package can stand upright on the shelf without injury to the 
bottom of the papers. This is the most compact form for 
storing loose papers and is the last word before the regularly 
mounted and bound collection. To place each manuscript in 
a separate, thin manila folder will prove rather impracticable, 
except where the collection numbers only a few hundred 
pieces, as it trebles the storage bulk and the additional pro- 
tection is not sufficient to offset the extra time consumed in 
storing and labeling. Where this is done, however, the ma- 
nila folder should be dated in the upper left-hand corner, year 
first, then month, then day: 1783, June 21. This date ar- 
rangement makes for easiest finding; in the center of the 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS 25 

23— Continued. 
folder a descriptive word or two should be added to obviate 
the necessity of opening any but the desired folder. 

24. Cataloguing. — Briefly stated, the catalogue entry for a 
manuscript consists of every descriptive or bibliographic detail 
except the calendar or brief of the contents. The catalogue 
card is for the use of the man who does not know, not for the 
archival expert or librarian. Necessary technicalities should, 
therefore, be made as unobtrusive as possible. A convenient 
form adapted to most contingencies is the following : 



1776 Hamilton, Alexander]. [Capt., 
[July 3] New YorK artillery company.] 

Harlem Plains. To LMajJ Gen. 

[Charles] Lee TNew YorK]. 



A. L. S. 1 p. 4 ( 

Location ^) 



The card is, of course, the standard library size. The date 
in the upper left-hand corner arranged as shown, in two lines, 
without punctuation except where the months are abbreviated. 
May, June, and July are the only months not so shortened, 
the others being abbreviated always to three letters, e. g., 



26 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

24 — Continued . 
Apr. Sep. The year and the rubric should be written in a 
bolder and heavier hand; the indentation of the second and 
succeeding lines being a little greater than that of the rubric 
line (see also under Printing). As the cards written for the 
main catalogue will take their places among entries covering 
perhaps the entire world, it will be found that to follow the 
individual's name with a brief biographical title, in brackets, 
such as: Statesman, Politician, Scientist, Col., U. S. Army, 
etc., is of time-saving value to both investigator and archivist. 
After the name of author or writer of the manuscript and 
his title, there follows the place from which the letter or 
document is written ; next the name of the addressed, preceded 
by military or professional title, if any; then the place where 
he was on that date, if it is of sufficient importance and can 
be ascertained without undue search. Then follows the cal- 
endar or brief of the contents of the letter, which is, however, 
omitted from a catalogue entry card (see under Calendar). 
The physical description of the manuscript comes next, 
employing for this purpose the accepted symbols : A. L. S. = 
autograph letter signed; A. L. = autograph letter; L. S. = letter 
signed; A. D. S.= autograph document signed; A. D. = auto- 
graph document; D. S. = document signed; A. Df. S.= auto- 
graph draft signed; A. Df. = autograph draft; Df. S. = draft 
signed. Occasionally A. N. S. = autograph note signed, and 
its variants, are used; but this is a refinement more confusing, 
than helpful. The number of pages should be given, i. e., 
the number of pages occupied by the letter proper only, not 
counting the address or indorsements. A letter that runs 
over, even a line or less, on the verso of the sheet is counted 
as two pages. This may be somewhat misleading to the 
investigator, but its value to the archivist as an accurate, 
stable description justifies it. The size of the sheet on which 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS 27 

24 — Continued. 
the letter is written may be given either in the general way: 
f°, 4 , 8°, etc., as the standard sizes of writing paper of the 
past usually run, or by the actual measurements in centimeters 
if preferred. This is a question of personal preference, exi- 
gency, and time; it is desirable in any form. Location sym- 
bols, showing where the manuscript is to be found, should be 
placed in the lower left-hand corner of the card. Where the 
manuscript is one of a large collection, like the Alexander 
Hamilton papers, for instance, the date is, of course, a suffi- 
cient location mark in the chronological order. Hamilton's 
various military and political titles would be given on a 
card of biographical memoranda at the beginning of the 
Hamilton cards, and not monotonously repeated on each 
entry. The location of the collection in the archives will 
appear here also, once and for all. 

25. All supplied information is inclosed in brackets, the 
punctuation following the idea of remaining properly placed 
if the brackets, with their inclosures, were eliminated. The 
value of accuracy in the use of brackets will quickly demon- 
strate itself; they present, with succinctness, a complete and 
accurate bibliographic picture of the manuscript, which is 
fundamentally necessary to the archival record. Information 
obtained from the indorsement, no matter by whom, is "sup- 
plied information," and bracketed. Where the abbreviated 
form of a name may mislead, e. g., Abr., which may be Abra- 
ham, Abram, or Abner, it should be spelled out in brackets; 
but it is obviously foolish to bracket Geo. Geo[rge] or Thos. 
Tho[ma]s. The form of the rubric of the author entry varies 
under different considerations ; if the card is to be filed in the 
general catalogue of the entire mass of the archival collections, 
the broad consideration should govern; e. g., United States, 
Executive, President ; but where the cards of a specific collec- 



28 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

25 — Continued. 
tion are kept together this lengthy form should be ignored. 
In the papers of one man, for instance, the personal viewpoint 
should be maintained throughout, and Lincoln, Abraham, or 
Temple, John Henry, Lord Palmerston, be written in such a 
way as not to sacrifice easy use of the cards. The rubric of 
the author entry of official papers in the main catalogue 
depends upon the department of the civil government of the 
State from which they emanate and not upon the individual 
who happens to be at the head of the department at that par- 
ticular time; e. g., the Emancipation Proclamation, considered 
as a Government document, would be entered: 

1863 UNITED STATES, Executive, President, 
Jan. 1 Proclamation of Emancipation 

The cross references would of course take care of Emancipa- 
tion, Lincoln, Proclamation, etc. In like manner the various 
executive departments, Navy, State, Treasury, War, etc., 
would be followed through the executive group alphabetically, 
the chronological arrangement within each group preserving 
the correct order of administrations, secretaries, etc. Where 
the cards are locked in the card trays and there is no chance 
of disarrangement by investigators, the repetition of these 
long headings may be dispensed with, to a considerable saving 
of the cataloguer's time, and a tab card substitute be placed 
at the head of each divisional group. This is something of a 
risk, however, and it is safer to compromise by abbreviations 
on each card. The question of abbreviations on the catalogue 
or calendar card is a vexed one and may safely be left to the 
personal preference of the archivist ; once the decision is made, 
consistency alone is necessary. Generally stated, the use of 
abbreviations increases the liability of misapprehension of 
the entrv. 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS 29 

26. In cataloguing volumes of manuscripts, i. e., not the 
manuscript contents but the volume itself as a whole, the cat- 
aloguer is not bound by the lettered title, especially as this is 
often misleading and, in European bindings of the earlier cen- 
turies, is sometimes downright false. Where there is a title- 
page, which is not often the case, the same difficulty exists. 
Here the cataloguer must be at liberty to select his own title 
or author entry; but he should always quote at the end of the 
bibliographic description the exact wording of the original 
volume lettering or title-page. If the collection of unbound 
manuscripts can be catalogued before arrangement, a sensible 
plan would be to number temporarily the individual docu- 
ments just as they come, with a soft, fine-pointed pencil (so 
that the numbers may easily be erased later) and catalogue 
them in the same order, numbering the card entries to corre- 
spond with the manuscripts. The arrangement best adapted 
to the papers can then be worked out with the cards and the 
manuscripts quickly arranged by reference to the pencil 
numbers. 

27. Calendars — of manuscripts, which are briefs of the con- 
tents, following the catalogue entry and preceding the bibli- 
ographic description, are the best means, next to printing in 
full, of presenting all the salient points of the papers to the 
investigator. The time and expert service demanded by the 
work of compilation, however, renders the form a costly one, 
and at best it can be no more than a guide, elaborate or other- 
wise, to the documents. Its reason for being is that its fullness 
of description reduces the unnecessary handling of the manu- 
scripts to a minimum; the investigator being able, with its aid, 
to discard, without seeing them, all papers not needed for his 
work. This elimination is a most decided gain in the preser- 
vation of the material. The cost of calendaring is high, 



30 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

27 — Continued. 
because of the necessary time consumed in it. The calendarer 
must read, and read carefully, every word of the manuscript 
and consider the statements therein before composing his 
brief; in addition to this is the time often needed for research 
work to establish proper interpretation of indefinite but im- 
portant allusions in the manuscript. It has the disadvan- 
tage too of being tinctured with the personality of the calen- 
darer; for, while a calendar of the same manuscript by two 
experts would record the same major subjects of the docu- 
ment, these would be presented somewhat differently and, 
often perhaps, in such form as to give entirely different empha- 
sis to the same fact; the variations in the minor subjects 
meanwhile, showing still greater differences. For this reason 
it is unwise to entrust the calendaring of a collection to more 
than one calendarer as the editorial labor of bringing two or 
more viewpoints into conformity for indexing, after the calen- 
dar entries are made, would mean a practical rewriting of the 
entire work, with consultation of the original manuscript in 
every case of doubt. The slightest experiment will prove 
that, even with the most learned editing, a change of a single 
phrase or sentence of a calendar entry without comparison 
with the manuscript is wholly unsafe. 

28. Calendaring. — The most convenient and most easily 
managed form of calendar entry states the subject heads of 
the letter or document in the order in which they appear 
therein in short phrases or sentences separated by semicolons. 

An example follows: 

Head Qrs. July nth, 1782. 
Dr. Sir, 

I have this moment received a Letter from Count De Ro- 
chambeau (by one of his aides in five days from Williams- 
burg) informing me that he is on his way to Phila — that he 
will be there the 13th or 14th & wishes an interview with me — 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS 3 1 

28 — Continued. 

for this purpose I shall set out in the Morning very early & 
have only to request your usual attention. 

I am Dr Sir 

Yr most Obedt. Ser. 

Go: Washington. 

P. S. I entreat that great diligence may be used in manoeu- 
vreing the Troops — If Genl. Carleton should in my absence 
send out the proceedings of the trial of Lippencott let them 
be forwarded to Head Qrs that they may follow me — accom- 
pany them with your own and the opinion of the Genl. officers 
whom you can readily consult as my measures must be taken 
so soon as these proceedings come to hand — & my stay in 
Philadelphia for aught I am apprized of at present will be 
very short. 

Yrs as before 

Maj. Genl. Heath. 

The calendar of the foregoing would be: 

1782 Washington, George. [Newburgh.] To Maj. gen. 
July 1 1 [William] Heath [Highlands]. Journey to Phila- 
delphia to confer with Comte de Rochambeau; 
directions respecting the receipt of trial proceed- 
ings of [Capt. Richard] Lippincott. A. Df . S. 
2 pp. 4 

This may* be expanded as follows : 

1782 Washington, George. [Newburgh]. To Maj. gen. 
July 1 1 [William] Heath [Highlands]. Comte de Rocham- 
beau on his way to Philadelphia; Washington 
to meet him there for a conference; sets out to- 
morrow; orders troops practiced in manouevers; 
proceedings of [Capt. Richard] Lippincott's trial 
to be forwarded, when received, with opinion of 
general officers thereon; length of stav in Phila- 
delphia. A. Df. S. 2 pp. 4 

It may sometimes be possible to establish a series of single 
words or phrases under which, according to the character of 



32 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

28 — Continued. 
the collection, nearly every idea occurring in the papers, or 
every subject treated can be covered. This would result in a 
condensation of the above entry to the following : 

1782 Washington, George. [Newburgh.] To Heath 
July 11 [Highlands]. Starts for Philadelphia; conference 
with Rochambeau; Lippincott trial proceedings. 
A. Df. S. 2 pp. 4 

The first of these forms seems preferable. It notes the facts 
with no waste of words, and omits nothing of importance. 
Rochambeau's aid, Williamsburg, exercise of the troops, Carle- 
ton, and the length of Washington's stay in Philadelphia are 
unimportant. There is no information in the second form not 
indicated as existing by the first, and the investigator does not 
demand and would not accept a statement of historical fact 
from a calendar entry; but merely requires that it point out 
to him the original document containing the fact. The third 
form, while satisfactory in the main (here, as in the first form, 
the mere order to exercise the troops is an inconsequential 
matter of daily routine, and the opinion of the general officers 
on Lippincott's trial of little consequence until given) excites 
a small amount of distrust, as in the hands of a hasty calen- 
darer such extreme condensation may easily lead to an 
omission. The exceedingly full and, for the purpose, ad- 
mirable, calendars of the British State Papers are but once 
removed from verbatim publications of entire documents, and 
vary so slightly from this in many instances that, from the 
standpoint of time and expense of publication, they amount 
to the same thing, and so need not be considered here. They 
are, however, despite a somewhat unnecessary wordiness, de- 
lightfully satisfactory to the investigator, who has neither the 
time nor the money for a visit to England or copies, and for 
most historical work they are practically as good as the manu- 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS 33 

2 8 — Continued . 
scripts themselves. For the briefer forms used here the point 
may be made that the basic idea is that of a mere index guide 
to the contents of the manuscripts. On this principle let us 
consider another example of calendaring in the following 
paragraph : 

The wagonmaster will provide teams to transport 200 barrels 
of flour to Fishkill Landing and load the same upon the barges 
there, but I fear the condition of the ice in the River and the 
leak)' state of the boats will prevent them crossing to West 
Point before Monday. 

Calendared this would read: Flour for West Point; condi- 
tion of barges. The wagonmaster performing routine work 
is of no consequence, especially as he is not named; Fishkill 
Landing in such connection even less so; or the state of the 
river. The number of barrels and condition of the barges 
will be looked up by the investigator, if he is interested in 
either flour or boats. In any event, the things to be known 
about the paragraph are that West Point, flour, and barges 
are mentioned therein, and this is all that the investigator 
demands of the calendar. If he is interested in either flour or 
barges or West Point he would still insist on reading the 
manuscript paragraph, even though the calendar entry men- 
tion the number of barrels and that the barges leaked. A 
fuller entry, but without added gain to the investigator, would 
be: Flour from Fishkill Landing for W T est Point; ice in the 
[Hudson] river; leaky state of barges. A choice is a matter 
of personal preference. A general rule for calendaring may 
thus be stated: Note the subject matters treated in the manu- 
script; but ignore the treatment of them. 

29. The best method to follow in calendaring is to make the 
index entries or cross-references at the same time that the cal- 



34 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

29 — Continued. 
endar entry is written, instead of following the usual book 
method of leaving the index until the entire work is completed. 
Indeed, the best result is to be obtained by making the cross- 
references from the original manuscript itself and, with these 
as a basis, to construct the calendar entry. These calendar 
or main entries should be numbered consecutively, and the 
cross-references refer to this number. The advantage of this 
plan is that all the work is done at the one time when the cal- 
endarer is most familiar with the manuscript in all its aspects, 
and as the indexing proceeds with the calendaring he is able 
to establish an uniformity of phraseology that greatly increases 
the exactitude and clearness of the work. A little experience 
in calendaring and the subsequent indexing will show that, 
although the general principles of book or running text index- 
ing hold true, the entire viewpoint is different, the attention 
to detail is more exacting, and scarcely one of the recognized 
forms or rules can be applied without considerable modifica- 
tion. An ever-present danger in calendaring is that of a too 
hasty reading the manuscript to be briefed. The danger of 
misconception of the writer's meaning is to the inexperienced 
considerable; and the necessity of historical knowledge, sound 
judgment, discrimination, and an unbiased mind is absolute. 
The printed book assumes that the reader knows nothing, or 
(except in the case of technical works) very little of the sub- 
jects discussed; but with the manuscript letter the opposite is 
the case. The writer knows that the recipient of his letter is 
familiar with all, or nearly all, of the aspects of the subjects 
he mentions; and as a result his meaning, clear as crystal to 
the correspondent of the years gone by, is to-day elusive and 
often difficult of exact interpretation. It is here that the 
archivist's knowledge and training count most heavily. He 
should be able to project himself mentally back into the period 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS 35 

2 9 — Continued. 
of the papers he is calendaring; to revive for himself something 
of the habits of thought of the times. With knowledge of the 
trend of events, personality of the writers, their ambitions, 
struggles, victories, and defeats, he is able to grasp more 
surely the tenor of the written words and more nearly to trans- 
late the thought of the brain behind them. It will be found 
that the long letter is generally easier to calendar than the 
short ; a letter of four folio pages can often be calendared in as 
many phrases, while one of barely 30 lines' length may require 
a dozen sentences or more. 

30. The phrase-sequence of the calendar entry is the same 
as the order in which the subjects are mentioned in the manu- 
script. These phrases are condensed to a limit consistent 
with clear and accurate statement, and in themselves partake 
of the character of index entries; the result is that the index, 
or cross-references of the calendar, form practically an index 
of an index. The composition of these two, calendar phrase 
and index word, are full of pitfalls for the indexer inexperienced 
in such work. The needs to be supplied by these entries are 
quite different from those demanded of the book indexes. 
The indexer of a calendar is twice removed from the material 
he is indexing; yet the index should reflect, not the calendar 
entry but the manuscript itself. The calendar phrase is, of 
course, the real index entry of the manuscript, and in its 
selection the calendarer is even less restricted than the book 
indexer; but in indexing this calendar phrase the freedom 
vanishes, and an uncompromising rigidity of expression 
becomes necessary. Exercise of the slightest freedom here 
will, because of distance from the original material, tend, 
almost invariably, to mislead the user of the calendar by 
promising more than the original manuscript can furnish. 
Again, the indexer has no choice but to consider that his 



36 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

30 — Continued. 
work must answer a thousand different historical inquiries, 
each one equally important to the individual investigator. 
It is this comprehensiveness that makes for so much drudgery 
in calendaring work. Every manuscript, no matter how 
trivial, must be given, relatively, the same amount of atten- 
tion and care. The editorial privilege of "selection" does 
not exist in such work, and the slightest exercise of discrimi- 
nation is to be deplored. The exclusion of all unnecessary 
words from the calendar entry, especially if the calendar is 
to be printed, will effect a considerable saving of space and 
cost in composition. It is a waste of words to start the 
entry with such expressions as " concerning," "relating to," 
"respecting," etc. In the body of the entry it is some- 
times necessary to use them, but as a description of the 
contents of a letter or document they are worthless. The 
letter must "relate to" or be "respecting" something or it 
would not have been written, and to continue to state this 
obvious fact through dozens of entries is obviously absurd. 
In like manner to commence the entry with "Letter to . . ." 
is unnecessary, as the symbols A. L. S. or A. D. S. are suffi- 
cient on this point. 

31. Printing. — Where the calendar is to be printed, certain 
mechanical details may be followed to advantage. The entry 
in type does not differ from the form already given, except 
that the year and catchword should be printed in caps or 
boldface font. If the indentation after the rubric line is 
made only one em greater, a considerable saving in composi- 
tion cost will be effected. In making a calendar which is to 
be printed, the great advantage of numbering the entries 
(the number to be in boldface type at the end of the last line 
of the entry), and of always making the index at the time of 
writing the calendar entries, will be distinctly felt. The 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS 37 

3 1 — Continued. 
index cards, of thin manila paper, should be filed daily. This 
is tedious, but the advantage, as well as the relief of being 
able to send the complete copy, including the index, to the 
printer all at once is obvious. In the printed form, names of 
prominent personages appearing in the calendar hardly need 
bracketing out in full where there is little danger of confusion 
of identity — as of Grant, Lincoln, Sumner, etc., in a collection 
of manuscripts covering the Civil War period, or Wayne, 
Arnold, Andre, Gates, etc., in a Revolutionary collection. 
The full names and full titles would appear, properly and 
once for all, in the index; but in the calendar entry it is well 
to prefix military and naval titles, such as maj. gen., rear 
adml.; the clergy, Rev., the President and Vice President of 
the United States, Governors, and the medical Dr. With 
minor individuals, however, such as Smith, Brown, or Jones, 
or where names are in part alike, as Maj. Gen. Nathanael 
Greene and Col. Christopher Greene, the Butlers and Howes 
of the Revolution, distinctions must be made in the calendar 
entry also. 

32. Repairs. — Repair work of any important character 
should never be attempted but by experienced hands. A 
wide knowledge of paper, the kinds, the qualities, the effects 
of age and of accident, and its behavior under every condition 
is necessary before one is justified in working upon a manu- 
script of value. A few hints of a general nature, however, 
may safely be given, but with the distinct understanding that 
they do not apply in any way to parchments. Every manu- 
script should be cleaned and pressed ; that is, all the wrinkles 
removed and smudgings of dirt lessened. To accomplish 
this, if the manuscript is very much begrimed, but the paper 
still retains its life, it should be immersed in warm (not hot) 
water in a flat pan similar to the photographer's developing 



38 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

32 — Continued. 
tray, and rocked gently for a time. This is a perfectly safe 
proceeding for any manuscript prior to the year 1800 that is 
not mildewed nor brittle. After that date the quality of the 
ink is doubtful, and, though much of the writing of the first 
decade of the Nineteenth century is safe, too much care can 
not be used in dealing with it. Any manuscript in ink that 
has the slightest tendency to run must never, of course, be 
moistened. The difficulties encountered in the aniline and 
cheapened inks of the early 1820's are too many and' varied 
to be disposed of in a paragraph, so must be dismissed with 
the suggestion that it is best to turn such matters over to the 
man who knows ; but to make him prove it before you intrust 
him with your valuable paper, otherwise the document may 
be hopelessly ruined. After the tray bath the manuscript 
is removed and placed between fine-grained towels or sheets 
of blotting paper, stretched fiat on the table, and the upper 
towel, or blotter, rubbed with gentle pressure for a few mo- 
ments (never, under any circumstances, rub in the slightest 
upon a damp manuscript). If the manuscripts are not soiled 
nor needing a bath they should be sandwiched between sheets 
of damp (not wet) newspaper (never the Sunday colored sup- 
plement), a single sheet of manuscript, then a single sheet of 
newspaper, another manuscript, another news sheet, etc. 
After three or four hours the manuscripts, removed from the 
news-sheets, should be placed between sheets of smooth, 
white, unglazed pulpboard, a single sheet of manuscript 
between two sheets of pulpboard. The pulpboard is suffi- 
ciently porous to absorb moisture, and best adapted for this 
particular need. A pile of these a foot or more in height may 
be placed at one time in the press. Here they should stay 
about ten hours, care having been taken in placing them be- 
tween the boards that no edges are turned nor wrinkles 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS 39 

32 — Continued. 
folded in. At the end of that time the manuscripts are dried 
out: perfectly flat and present a marvelously better appear- 
ance. As to patching torn manuscripts and strengthening 
dilapidated ones, a brief discussion of the general, technical 
principles of such work could be but partially satisfying, and 
a full discussion is out of the question. The Library of 
Congress uses crepeline, a mixture of cotton or silk gauze (or 
fine, mercerized, bolting cloth), with which to cover its torn 
or dilapidated manuscripts. It is, or was, of French manu- 
facture and can be obtained from any large dry-goods house. 
It is pasted to the manuscript with flour and water paste of 
the following formula : 

One cup of best wheat flour; three cups cold water; 
}i teaspoonful of powdered alum; four grains of white arsenic. 
This is beaten until free from lumps and then boiled for ten 
minutes in a double boiler. When cold remove the skin from 
the top and beat up well. 

This paste is used for all the work. Mucilage or the various 
manufactured white pastes on the market should never be used 
for manuscript work; they are ineffective in every way 
and dangerous. The manuscript, after dampening and press- 
ing as described, is thinly coated with the paste by means of a 
camel's-hair brush and the cr&peline laid on; it is then placed 
between sheets of paraffin paper, put between pulp boards, 
and put in press for 15 minutes; then removed from the press, 
the paraffin paper taken off, and again placed between sheets 
of pulp board under very slight pressure until dry. One side of 
the manuscript must not be cr^pelined unless the other is also, 
for the resultant unequal strain will curl it with a curl that no 
amount of pressure can ever reduce. Above all, the operator 
should beware of attempting any repair work upon a manu- 
script of value unless he knows exactly how the paper will act 
during the process. 



4-0 UBRARY OF CONGRESS 

33. Mounting and binding. — After cleaning and pressing 
the manuscripts may be mounted upon sheets of uniform 
size and of a quality of paper dependent upon the expenditure 
permitted. Good quality white linen ledger is excellent, 
and it should be cut so that the manuscript can be mounted 
thereon with the grain of the paper; the grain of the mounting 
sheet running vertically to insure flexibility in opening after 
binding, a thing impossible if the grain of the paper be hori- 
zontal. A good quality rope-manila paper is cheaper, is the 
strongest of papers, and, in the lighter weights, possesses 
great flexibility. Its color, under some circumstances, may 
be considered an objectionable feature, but it is the only 
one. Manuscripts should never be mounted unless they are 
to be bound at once, as handling in mounted form while 
unbound greatly increases the liability of damage. The 
mounting sheet should allow at least a full inch and a half 
on the left beyond the established size of the page desired 
for the binder to fold and stitch; and the established size of 
the page depends upon the average size of the manuscripts 
to be bound. A margin of 2 or 3 inches all around the manu- 
script is ample; but, if there are many extra large papers in 
the collection, a size must be decided upon that will accommo- 
date them with the least amount of cutting and hinging, 
and at the same time not increase unnecessarily the size of 
the volume for the sake of a small percentage of the papers. 
A good average size for the mounting sheet is 10 inches 
wide by 14 inches high, exclusive of the necessary extra 
margin for the binder. In the case of military muster rolls, 
returns, etc., which are apt to be unusual in size and proportion, 
an average should be struck and the rolls cut and hinged 
thereto. Drastic as this may seem, it is, in the end, a safe- 
guard and protection to the manuscript, as the risk of damage 



NOTES ON THE CARE, ETC., OF MANUSCRIPTS 41 

3 3 — Continued. 
by awkward investigators is much greater to large papers than 
to large papers cut and hinged to a smaller size with reen- 
forced folds that serve as a protection. The general method 
of mounting is with strips of the lightest weight architect's 
tracing linen about one-half inch wide, impinging equally upon 
the mounting sheet and the manuscript, with a fraction of an 
inch free from paste to permit free play to the hinge. 



A good bond paper is a fair substitute for the tracing linen ; 
but care must be used in cutting this with the grain of the 
paper running lengthwise of the strip, otherwise smooth 
work is impossible. There are different methods of placing 
this hinge, either concealing it or not, by folding, as desired. 



42 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

33 — Continued. 
Do not cut the strips with the scissors; a sharp knife will 
alone give the straight edge necessary. At times the nature 
of the manuscript may require that it be hinged at the top 
instead of at the side; in such cases it is a wise precaution to 
paste a neatly printed warning at the top of the mounting 
sheet, otherwise an investigator will infallibly half tear the 
manuscript from the mount, if he does nothing worse, before 
realizing the different location of the hinge. After the 
manuscripts are mounted they should be bound. Any con- 
venient number of sheets to the volume may be established; 
but a thickness of over 2 inches will be found cumbersome 
to handle and, with increase of difficulty in handling, comes 
increased danger of accident to the manuscripts. The 
advantages of preservation in bound form are too obvious 
to need discussion; but, of course, a collection likely to 
receive numerous additions should not be bound until the 
chance of increase has largely disappeared. As the com- 
pensating stubs, always necessary in bound volumes of manu- 
scripts, will easily take care of an increase of a dozen or so 
manuscripts per volume, the possibility of a small number of 
accessions is hardly an offset to the continued risk of unbound 
collections. The various forms of binding and different 
binding materials are of small moment compared with the 
work of bringing the manuscript material to the point where 
the binder is needed ; and a knowledge of the various leathers 
and buckrams, finishes and letterings, etc., while desirable 
is not essential, where a competent foreman of binding can 
be consulted. 



INDEX. 



[References are to paragraphs.] 

Abbreviations, 24, 25. 

Accessibility, 14, 15. 

Arrangement, 8, 10; alphabetical, 21; through catalogue cards, 26; dis- 
arrangement, 8, 23; faulty, 15; group, 11, 17; individual manuscripts, 
12, 14; letters from and to, 15; in Library of Congress, 13; manuscript 
influence on, n; mechanics of, 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22; 
official manuscripts, 6, 16; personal manuscripts, 8, 22; shelf groups, n; 
subjective, 15, 21; a working method, 9. 

Author entry, 25, 26. 

Bibliographic description, 24, 25, 26. 

Binding, 33. 

Biographic card, 24. 

Bound volumes, 19, 26. 

Boxes, 23. 

Brackets, 25,-31. 

Calendar, 27; British state papers, 28; phrase arrangement, 28, 30; phrase 
uniformity, 27, 29; printing, 31; unnecessary words, 30. 

Calendaring, 10; advantages, 27; cost, 27; danger, 29; disadvantages, 27; 
entries, 29; example of entry, 28; length of entry, 29; general rule, 28; 
method of composing entry, 29, 30; numbering entry, 29, 31; nature 
and character, 28. 

Cards, 24; of application, 3; catalogue, 14, 24, 25. 

Catalogue, the general, 25. 

Cataloguing, 10, 14, 24, 25, 26; before arrangement, 26; of bound vol- 
umes, 26; entry form, 24; of specific collections, 25. 

Chronological order, 9, 13, 14, 16, 22, 24. 

Classes of manuscripts, 4, 17. 

Classification, 4, 11, 16. 20. 

43 



44 INDEX 

Cleaning, 32. 

Commissions, 17. 

Consultation of manuscripts, 2. 

Copying, 2. 

Crepeline, 32. 

Cross references, 25, 29, 30. 

Cutting and hinging, 23, 33. 

Dating, of folders, 23; of manuscripts, 9, 14; undated manuscripts, 8, 

14. i5- 
Destruction of indexes, 6. 
Devices for storing, 23. 
Diaries. See Journals and diaries. 
Disarrangement. See under Arrangement. 
Documents, 4. 
Dust protection, 23. 
Enclosures, 14. 
Envelopes, 23. 
Folders, 23. 
Folding, 23. 

Government, constitutional divisions, 16, 25. 
Great Britain, state papers calendars, 28. 
Handling precautions, 2. 
Hiaging, 33. See also Cutting and hinging. 
Illuminated manuscripts, 4. 
Indentation, 24; in printing, 31. 
Index, 6, 30; destruction of, 6. 
Indexing, 29, 30, 31. 
Indorsements, 25. 
Information, supplied, 25. 
Ink, in copying, 2; dangers, 32. 
Investigators. See Readers. 
Journals and diaries, 18. 
Labels, 19. 

Library of Congress, 13, 33. 
Literary manuscripts, 22. 
Location symbols, 24. 
Madan, Falconer, 4. 
Manuscript sense, 8, 10. 
Military papers, 17, S3- 



index 45 

Miscellaneous manuscripts, 21. 

Months, abbreviations, 24. 

Mounting, 33. 

Names, confusion of, 31. 

Numbering, of calendar entries, 29, 31; of manuscripts, 20, 26. 

Official papers, 4, 5, 6, 7, 16, 25. 

Order. See Arrangement; also Chronological order. 

Orderly books, 18. 

Pagination, 24. 

Paper, 32, 33. 

Parchments, 4, 32. 

Paste, 32. 

Personal or private papers, 4, 5, 8, 22. 

Photography, 2. 

Portfolios, 23. 

Preservation, 1. 

Pressing, 32. 

Printing of calendars, 31. 

Protective devices, 23. 

Punctuation, 24, 25. 

Readers, application, 3; file record of, 3; handling of manuscripts, 2, 23, 

33; introductions and responsibility, 3. 
Repairs, 32. 

Restrictions in use of manuscripts, 2,3. 
Returns, military, 17, 33. 
Rubric. See under Author and Title entries. 
Scientific manuscripts, 22. 
Size of manuscripts, 17, 33. 
Storage devices, 23. 

Subjective arrangement. See under Arrangement. 
Supplied information, 25. 
Symbols, 24. 
Title entry form, 25, 26. 
Typewritten documents, 4. 
Undated manuscripts. See under Dating. 
Use, 2, 3. 
Volumes, binding titles, 26; bound, 19. 

o 



